


Night Encounter

by Fafsernir



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, but no specific time, just them talking, some time after Alfield
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23287669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fafsernir/pseuds/Fafsernir
Summary: Caleb couldn't sleep, but he didn't want to wake Nott up. He walked down the stairs, alone, and started organizing, counting. It would help. It usually did;
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 2
Kudos: 76





	Night Encounter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Justafewthingstosay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justafewthingstosay/gifts).



> I wrote this for a friend's birthday but kept forgetting to post it! 
> 
> I started CR (with the M9) only a couple of months ago and it's my first CR, and Widomauk, fic, I hope you enjoy! :)

Caleb took a deep breath, trying to calm his reeling mind. It was hard. Harder than he'd thought. It wasn't just seeing a human burn, it was any humanoid. No matter how aggressive they had been towards him, the memory of his family burning was there. It always came back to haunt him, in some way. He had ran away from it, but had only been successful in putting physical distance between himself and the events. During some harder times, his mind was still very much stuck there, watching the wood burn and listening to the screams begging for help.

And he wasn't able to hide it as well as he once had. It was easy not to mention it – who would willingly mention that they were a monster? – but it was harder to hide his panic when it happened.

Mollymauk had seen it. The others had, too. Probably. He wasn't sure, because he was always carefully avoiding any eye contact, but his paranoia told him that everyone knew. They probably thought he was a freak, that he was crazy. They would be right, but that was besides the point.

He sometimes wondered if he shouldn't come clean. It would be a weight lifted from his shoulders. At least they'd know, he wouldn't have time to grow attached to them so it wouldn't hurt as much when they'd leave him behind. Because they would. Surely, they would. They would realise who and what he was and do the only reasonable thing: turn their backs on him. It was the only outcome possible, he was sure. Even Nott would go. 

That was why he didn't want to say it. Because despite everything, he had grown attached to them. It was… different, being part of a group. He had felt happy at the Academy with the others, he had felt like he belonged, at least for a while. He hadn't felt that way in a while. But with this group, they were… they were helping people, they were helping and people were grateful, and they were paid for it. He felt useful.

Maybe if he did enough good deeds, he wouldn't need to mention the Academy, ever.

“Can't sleep?” he heard a voice say as a shape sat on the chair next to him.

Caleb realised where he was. He had walked down the stairs quietly, not waking up the curled up form of Nott by his side, and sat in the silent bar. It was too late, or too early, for anyone to be here, but it was perfect. It was quiet.

And, oddly enough, the sudden presence of Mollymauk didn't tense Caleb up again. He stayed relaxed and calm. Or, as calm as he had felt.

“That's quite a nice collection you’ve got there,” the tiefling smiled, waving his hand towards Caleb's organised items. He had laid them all out earlier, taking his time to put them into piles, organising them neatly, separating them carefully. He sometimes did that to help calm his nerves, or out of stressed habit.

“ _ Ja _ ,” was all he could muster to answer.

As he briefly looked up to Mollymauk, to make sure he looked okay, Caleb realized how tired he felt. He hadn't been able to sleep for hours, and his body was starting to let him know that he should rest.

“You did good out there. This group is oddly working out well.” Mollymauk was smiling, this shit eating grin which made him look… well,  _ handsome _ , Caleb had to admit.

Exhaustion was clouding his mind enough that filters and lies to himself weren't working anymore. It wasn’t the first time he was thinking it, too. He had already stumbled upon the thought that his tiefling travelling companion looked amazing. Now, he wasn’t one to refuse to see that people were good-looking, everyone in the Mighty Nein looked good, but Mollymauk was… It was… It was different. It felt different.

Because whenever he thought about something like this, he could feel the pressure of lips against his forehead, and the feeling of hands on his shoulders. And it was not helping that those were memories, and not fantasies or longings. 

Molly had proved to be quite the interesting folk, first with his circus, but mainly with himself, with the way he thought and talked. It wasn’t negative, far from it, but Caleb wasn’t used to it. Int the group, they liked to say they were assholes, Caleb sometimes really thought that about himself, but he couldn’t bring himself to think that about Mollymauk. Sure, sometimes they all made questionable choices, but Molly always chimed in with his… “leaving a place better than I’ve found it” way of thinking, which was slowly being implemented into the group’s values, apparently. They were doing it for money, or at least Caleb was, or at least he wasn’t doing it for the simple desire of helping people, he did it to serve his own purpose, but Mollymauk… He was generous. He was good. A good person, truly and purely. He never hesitated to help everyone, anyone, even bandits attacking them. 

Caleb hadn’t liked it at first. It had felt wrong, without him being able to define how exactly. Maybe because his paranoia was telling him that helping people would leave a bigger impact, and people would talk, and  _ they _ would find him again. Not matter that they wouldn’t be aware of his name, they would just  _ know _ , they would know that the wizard burning enemies to death was him.

But now, after being on the receiving end of Molly’s goodness and attention, he understood a bit better. After being one to help, he understood, too. It could feel good to help, beyond the monetary gain of it. He still expected money for his services, he needed it, but he could understand Molly.

“You don’t have to talk, but you’ve obviously been through a lot,” Molly started again, still smiling, his red eyes looking into Caleb’s. “But I did say there’d be time for it later. Whenever that latter turns out to be, we’ll make sure the first one is doable.”

It was an extended hand for Caleb to take. It was an invitation to talk.

He scratched his arm nervously, still bandaged up, always bandaged up, focusing on how he could not, he could not reveal who he was and what had been done to him to this too-good-for-the-world tiefling. 

“We all have our secrets, you don’t ever have to say anything. But we’re together now, I’m sure anyone would be willing to listen.”

Caleb stretched his hand on his arm, trying not to scratch it anymore. He put his palm against the table, then slowly started to put his stuff away, looking sideways at Molly’s own hands on the table, playing with his tarot cards.

“Likewise,” Caleb barely whispered out, half-hoping the other wouldn’t hear it.

“We should get some rest, we could use it tomorrow. You need to recharge your batteries.” 

“ _ Ja _ ,” Caleb nodded, closing his satchel as he put away the last of his items. He got up, but stood there awkwardly for a moment. Mollymauk jumped on his feet, with more energy in him than Caleb had probably ever felt. “Mr. Mollymauk?” he called back, still very quietly.

“Mr. Caleb?” he smiled, bright and inviting.

There were so many things he suddenly wanted to say, to talk about, things he had never thought about sharing, things he hadn’t even thought before. He felt the urge tug, his mouth opening to speak all the words his mind was thinking.

He settled on a simple “thank you.  _ Gute nacht _ ,” and fled the conversation, as he usually did.

He could almost feel the chuckle which escaped Molly’s lips. “If you really can’t sleep, you know which door’s mine,” he threw behind Caleb as he was rushing upstairs.

He stopped briefly in the stairs, long enough for Mollymauk to catch up and brush past him, his tail trailing a path down Caleb’s side. He shivered but shook his head, and made his way quickly to his room, ignoring the quiet laugh of his companion, ignoring the suggestive and amused wink of his beautiful…  _ friend _ . He lay back down in bed, flustered and breathing quickly because of how fast he had rushed in.

Briefly, he wondered what had been keeping Mollymauk up, but tried not to obsess about it, or he would never be able to sleep. He relaxed against Nott’s cuddling form, and tried to listen to her calm breathing to lull himself to sleep. If he dreamt of a certain lavender-skinned tiefling that night, he was careful not to mention it the following day. Or the day after, when he dreamt again. Or any time he dreamt of him, which rapidly started to be a daily occurrence.


End file.
